Memory Dress
by Kristina Rose
Summary: Bella's 4 and alone in a store, trying to find a dress while her dad is shopping. No little girl can find a dress alone, so when a girl offers to help her she agrees. But this girl has a secret. Will it affect Bella's life or will it become a lost memory?


**The** little girl ran around the girl's section of the store giggling and smiling. She was absolutely adorable. She was very small with long brown hair and big brown eyes. She was here with her father, but he had run to the men's section quickly to pick himself out something and told the girl to pick out a dress for the wedding he was taking her to. Ridiculous. Little girls shouldn't be left alone. That's how bad things happened to little girls. I would take care of her, at least for the moment.

"Hello, honey, what's your name?" I asked sweetly as I approached her. The girl glanced at me, nervousness flashing in her eyes. Poor thing, she was shy as could be. I smiled at her as big as I could without scaring her with my teeth. She lost some of her nerves immediately. _There we go_, I thought. One of the few good things about being a vampire was that you could calm people down.

"My name is Bella. I shouldn't tell you that though, I'm not supposed to talk to strangers," she said with shyness creeping into her quiet voice. Well apparently her father had taught her something.

"It's okay, Bella. I won't hurt you, I promise. Okay?" I asked her as nicely as I could.

"Sure," she said fidgeting with her yellow jumper. She was still nervous.

"Honey, do you want me to help you pick out a pretty dress?" I asked her and that seemed to cure her of her nerves. She smiled and nodded. She grabbed my hand and I smiled genuinely at her as we walked, hand in hand, over to the dress section.

"Now, Bella, the first step in picking out a dress is knowing what size you are. Do you know?" I asked her.

"Nope," she said. How in the hell had her father expected her to pick out a dress when she didn't even know what size she was?

"Okay, we'll figure it out by looking at the tag on the one your wearing. Turn around for me," I told her. She turned around and I kneeled down and read the tag at her neck. _Extra Small_. Wow, she really was tiny. I tucked her tag back in and stood up. She turned and looked at me expectantly. I smiled.

"You wear a size extra small. Now the next step is picking out a dress. So what's your favorite color, Bella?" I asked her. She was such a sweet little girl. It was times like these when I wished more than anything I could have a sweet little girl like her to be a mother to.

"I don't have one, I'm sorry," she said. Why would she apologize for that? It was strange for a little girl not to have a favorite color, but nothing to apologize for.

"No problem," I said and she smiled relieved. How odd. I looked through the dresses on the rack and pulled out the one that I thought would look best on her. It was royal blue and knee length. It had a ribbon you tied into a bow at the back, a sheer lacy skirt over a solid blue one, short sleeves, and three little flowers around the neckline.

"Do you like this one?" I asked her holding the dress out so she could see. She nodded, smiling. I smiled back at her pleased that I had picked out a dress that she liked. "Do you want to go try it on?"

"Yep, I wanna try it on," she told me. She took my hand again and I led her to the fitting rooms. Then she walked into a room and looked down shyly.

"What's the matter?" I asked perplexed by the sudden outbreak of shyness.

"Well," she began, "I'm only four and I still kinda need help with fancier dresses," she finished quickly. I smiled, of course she still needed help with these kinds of dresses.

"No problem, I'll help you," I told her and her face lit up. I walked into the room and shut the door. She kicked off her shoes and pulled off her jumper and I held out the blue dress. She stepped into the dress and turned around so I could zip it up. I zipped it and tied the ribbon into a neat bow. Bella turned back around and pulled her brown hair out of her collar while I adjusted the flowers on the dress. "Look in the mirror, Bella." She looked very pretty and sweet. It suited her.

"Thank you, I love it, even though I don't usually like dresses much! It's so preeety!" she half shouted. I laughed.

"Glad you like it, Bella," I said through my laughter. After she had spun around a couple of time I helped her back into her yellow jumper. "Come on," I said leading her back to where her father had left her. When we got there I could hear her father's footsteps approaching.

"Bella, it's been a true pleasure getting to help you out. Here's your dress," I said handing her the dress.

"Your leaving," she said. It wasn't a question, it was a statement. I felt a ping in my long dead heart.

"Yes, but I'll always remember you," I promised her and I knew I would. She nodded and I turned, walking away slowly.

"I'll see you again one day, I know I will," she called after me. There was so much certainty in her little voice that I thought for a moment she could see into the future. I shook my head and reminded myself that that was silly and I hoped I would never see her again, it would only be bad news for her. I turned and waved to her. Why did it hurt this much to leave her? I had only known her for fifteen minutes. I knew the answer though she reminded me of me when I was her age. She was also everything I had ever dreamed of. I sighed. I walked to the women's section and blocked out the conversation Bella was having with her father. I went to the rack where I had hung the dress that I had already decided on.

"Are you okay? You look upset," the woman who was like a mother to me commented. I shook my head. She gave me a small, sad smile that told me she understood.

"It'll be okay, Rosalie."

* * *

**I **smiled sadly at the woman Bella had become, I wished she hadn't met me again. Mostly I wished she would never remember the first time she met me. Today was the day before her wedding and if she didn't remember now she never would. "Oh my," she murmured, standing up to look at me. Edward looked confused and looked around the living room to see if anything was wrong. Seeing nothing he also looked at me. I focused on Bella though, it looked like she had something to say to me. I looked into her eyes and it looked like she was truly seeing me for the first time. Oh no.

"You never hated me," she stated, again not asking a question. I gave her a small smile.

"Never, still have the dress?" I asked half jokingly.

"Of course, I do," she said sounding hurt. She still had it? Then I remembered everything that happened that day and I realized she was expecting to see me again so she would have kept the dress to show me. Edward looked at me, amazed and I knew he had just seen my first true meeting with Bella replay in my head.

"I've got to go," I said running out the front door and into the forest so I could think calmly about the little girl I had known and still knew.


End file.
